AAN News
Lacey Fires Back at Free Timesnew
New Times Executive Editor Mike
Lacey calls Cleveland Free Times'
recent attacks on New Times and
Cleveland Scene "an explosion of
bluster." Lacey accuses Free Times'
Editor David Eden and Publisher
Matt Fabyan of concocting
"conspiracies wrapped in an ad
hominem attack" and of publishing
"organ
discharge." He cites sales and profit
figures that starkly contradict Free Times'
assertion that it was winning the
alternative
newsweekly battle in Cleveland.
Cleveland Scene |
06-05-2003 12:37 pm |
Industry News
New Times Writer Dead at 32new
Marnye Oppenheim, who wrote the "Bite Me" restaurant column for New Times Los Angeles for two years and continued it at Phoenix New Times, has died, the LA Times reports. She was 32.
LA Times |
05-19-2003 10:50 am |
Industry News
AAN Writers Are Winners and Finalists in James Beard Awardsnew
New Times writers swept the Newspaper Restaurant Review or Critique category of the 2003 James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards with Jason Sheehan of Westword winning, while Jill Posey-Smith of Riverfront Times and Robb Walsh of Houston Press were finalists. Mark Stuertz of the Dallas Observer was the winner in the Newspaper, Magazine or Internet Reporting on Consumer Issues, Nutrition and/or Health category for his article “Green Giant." Dara Moskowitz,
City Pages (Twin Cities) and Walsh
were finalists in the newspaper series category.
James Beard Foundation |
05-14-2003 1:14 pm |
Industry News
New Times Wins Top Honors in John Bartlow Martin, James Beard Awards
New Times news release |
05-12-2003 4:19 pm |
Press Releases
Riordan's Weekly Prototype Aims at Affluentnew
Still on the alternative weekly beat, Tim Rutten of the Los Angeles Times critiques former mayor Richard Riordan's new weekly prototype and finds the LA Examiner aimed at the people who elected him -- affluent, educated and mostly white. Rutten, who reported on the antitrust investigation of Village Voice Media and New Times, takes a last slap at the two chains for "a sad and venal chapter in an otherwise vigorous -- often courageous --
history" of the alternative press in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Times |
01-31-2003 1:59 pm |
Industry News
NT-VVM Investigation: Does It Strike You as Fishy?new
That's what The Village Voice's Cynthia Cotts asks when she looks at the consent decree signed by Village Voice Media and New Times that settled an antitrust investigation of their agreement to close competing papers in Los Angeles and Cleveland. She suggests the settlement, which requires the companies to resell assets to groups attempting to start new weeklies, "might represent a violation of the First Amendment, the Fifth Amendment, and/or the prohibition on selective prosecution."
Village Voice |
01-29-2003 9:24 am |
Industry News
New Times, Village Voice Media Sign Consent Decreenew
In the conclusion to the unprecedented antitrust probe of the two alt-weekly chains, neither company admitted guilt but agreed to aid the opening of new weekly papers in Los Angeles and Cleveland. The New York Times' David Carr calls the case "a validation of the growing role of the alternative press in an era when many dailies now own monopolies in their respective markets." New Times officials expressed outrage at the government's actions in the case. "The way that it has been told, this was two fat cats getting together so they could get even fatter, but the fact of the matter is, we would not be here if we had not done this deal," says New Times' CEO Jim Larkin, who reveals that $20 million of losses in Cleveland and Los Angeles had put the company in technical default with its lending agreements.
New York Times |
01-27-2003 9:22 am |
Industry News
AAN Statement Re Consent Decree Signed By VVM and NTM
AAN news release |
01-27-2003 10:51 am |
Legal News
LA Prosecutor Responds to Meyerson, Laceynew
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve
Cooley calls a column by LA
Weekly's Harold Meyerson and a
letter to the editor of the Wall Street
Journal written by New Times'
Michael Lacey "self-interested
positions staked out by those who are
directly affected by this investigation."
Cooley claims he reads LA Weekly
"because it is a valuable news
organ" and says New Times LA was
"occasionally very funny, on occasion very
insightful, on occasion very cruel." He
argues that "It's wrong ... to attribute
political motives to government
agencies that are just doing their jobs. ...
we're at the investigative stage. At the end
of the exercise, there may be a
determination that what's been uncovered
falls short of establishing a violation
of the law."
Los Angeles Times |
01-26-2003 4:09 pm |
Industry News
Lacey, Savage Respond to WSJ Commentarynew
When you call us wealthy monopolist
bullies, "(d)o you mean this in the
positive sense of wealthy, monopolist
bullies?" New Times' Michael
Lacey asks the Wall Street Journal,
which last week ran a commentary by
Daniel Akst on the New
Times-Village Voice Media antitrust
investigation. In his letter to the editor,
Lacey says the Justice Dept. "is trying to
create legal theory with this ... probe",
which he calls a "stunning grab for
unprecedented federal power." In a
separate letter, Dan Savage,
editor of The Stranger (and AAN Editorial
Awards Host-for-Life), says his paper
was "distressed to be lumped in with
other alternative weekly papers."
Wall Street Journal |
01-23-2003 6:04 pm |
Industry News
Meyerson on the Antitrust Investigationnew
The Justice Department's investigation of
the Village Voice Media-New Times deal
to close weeklies in Cleveland and Los
Angeles is apparently driven by a concern
"that the assisted suicide of New Times
in Los Angeles
reflects
a narrowing of political
perspectives in the city, and that it is
the government's responsibility
to create
more ideological space," Harold
Meyerson writes. He
adds that if investigators really looked
they would find at least as much
"ideologically driven or
monomaniacal" editorial slant at the
dailies as at alternative newsweeklies.
LA Weekly |
01-23-2003 9:34 am |
Industry News
Antitrust Probe Proceeds at Unusually Rapid Pacenew
Prosecutors investigating the New Times-Village Voice Media deal that closed New Times LA and Cleveland Free Times worked through the weekend taking depositions, according to the L.A. Times' Tim Rutten. Sources familiar with the depositions told Rutten that prosecutors "repeatedly returned to questions concerning the nature of alternative journalism and the impact of New Times' closure on local news coverage." One unidentified witness said many of the prosecutors' questions "seemed to be driven by their belief that unlike a mainstream daily newspaper, an alternative weekly is suffused throughout with a particular point of view. They seem to believe that losing an alternative paper is a greater hardship to the community in that way than losing a mainstream daily."
Los Angeles Times |
01-13-2003 12:09 pm |
Industry News
Wall Street Journal Weighs in on New Times/VVMnew
"We're relieved the Justice Department
has decided to draw a line in the sand in this case," Michael Lacey, executive editor of New Times, sarcastically tells LA business columnist, Daniel Akst. The columnist chides New Times and Village Voice Media for being sanctimonious about the evils of "big-city dailies" but concedes Lacey's point: "If a generation's worth of
media consolidation is OK because of new technologies and competition between
broadcasters, print outlets, the Internet and so forth, it probably shouldn't be a
hanging offense that a couple of unsuccessful weeklies are closing in concert."
WSJ Opinion Journal |
01-10-2003 4:26 pm |
Industry News
Anti-Trust Investigation of VVM/New Times "Risibly Misplaced"new
"Does the U.S. Department of Justice
really have so little to do it must
investigate why a couple of alternatives
were folded?" E&P asks in a Nov. 25
editorial. With so many media outlets in
both the Los Angeles and Cleveland
markets where the two alternative weekly
chains closed papers to end
head-to-head competition, advertisers
have plenty of places to go. "It's not an
argument Justice can make with a
straight face," E&P concludes.
Editor & Publisher |
12-04-2002 1:36 pm |
Industry News
Feds Taking Testimony in New Times/VVM Dealnew
Sources tell the Los Angeles Times that
federal investigators may be pursuing a
legal solution that would actually
re-open alternative newsweeklies in
Los Angeles and Cleveland, the two
cities where Village Voice Media and New
Times agreed to close papers and
eliminate competition. The federal
anti-trust investigation is "unusually
fast-paced," The Times' Tim Rutten
reports. "Clearly, they've decided to
move before the bodies get too
cold," an anti-trust attorney tells
Rutten.
Los Angeles Times |
11-20-2002 9:58 am |
Industry News
